Want to build native Mac OS X applications with a sleek, developer-friendly alternative to Objective-C? MacRuby is an ideal choice. This in-depth guide shows you how Apple’s implementation of Ruby gives you access to all the features available to Objective-C programmers. You’ll get clear, detailed explanations of MacRuby, including quick programming techniques such as prototyping.

Perfect for programmers at any level, this book is packed with code samples and complete project examples. If you use Ruby, you can tap your skills to take advantage of Interface Builder, Cocoa libraries, the Objective-C runtime, and more. If you’re a Cocoa developer, you’ll learn how to improve your productivity with MacRuby.

Get up to speed on MacRuby basics, including classes and methods

Learn how to use MacRuby with Apple’s Xcode developer suite

Delve into the primitive object classes and data types in Foundation Kit

Build event-driven user interfaces with the AppKit framework

Handle relational object persistence with the Core Data framework

Use advanced MacRuby techniques, including concurrency and sandboxing

Get examples for applications using Twitter and a location web service

Matt Aimonetti

Matt Aimonetti is a Senior Engineer at Sony Playstation in San Diego, CA where he works on video games. Prior to that, Matt worked with startups, fortune 100 companies and traditional companies, where he had the opportunity to be involved with really captivating projects in different domain spaces from Biotech to comics without forgetting advertising, social networks e-learning and more.

Matt joined the MacRuby team in 2008 and has been active in the Ruby community for many years prior to that. Matt developed or contributed to a lot OSS libraries and frameworks (Merb, Rails and many more), spoke at users groups and conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Matt blogs at http://merbist.com.

The animal on the cover of MacRuby: The DefinitiveGuide is a northern cardinal (Cardinaliscardinalis), a frequent visitor to backyard bird feedersthroughout the United States. Although the male of the species—with itsvivid, red plumage—is perhaps more easily recognized, the brown colorationof females is also accented in the characteristic red. Ranging fromsoutheastern Canada and the eastern United States to Mexico and northernparts of Central America, the birds favor dense, shrubby areas, such asthose found in forests, gardens, and swamps.Northern cardinals have prominent crests, thick, cone-shaped beaks,and distinctive facial masks, which are colored black in males andgrayish-black in females. The birds reach a length of 8 to 9 inches andusually weigh no more than 2 ounces. Their diet consists of weed andsunflower seeds, grains, fruits, and insects, and the birds feed their younginsects almost exclusively. While there is a preference for seeds that areeasily husked, this nonmigratory species is less selective during the wintermonths when food is scarce.Mated pairs often sing together, sometimes as part of a mating ritualin which the female sings and the male brings food in response. If themating is successful, this behavior may continue throughout the incubationperiod, with the female singing from the nest. Fiercely territorial, themale seeks out the highest perch from which he can closely monitor for othermales or predators. Particularly in the spring and summer, it is notuncommon to see the male attempting to attack mirrored surfaces, mistakinghis reflection for a rival.

I had few knowledge about Ruby and Objective-C programming languages but this book is really easy to understand, if you know something about programming and object-oriented languages.I recommend this to everyone who wants to learn to program with MacRuby, a "bridge" between Ruby and Objective-C in Mac OS X environment.